International Management #3 The Global Manager, Culture, Intercultural Effectivenes, Global Teams

[samvara]

Finally, class notes written up; quality variable.

Discussion of changes to schedule - week nine pushed out.

Brief review and discussion of previous week.

• What are the main linkages in international business management - trade, technology transfer and foreign direct investment
• FDI - direct investment
• Positives of foreign direct investment - brings skills, technology transfer, increased employment, capital formation - on the increase, seen as a good thing
• Negatives - creates dependency on foreign direct investor, cultural change as a result of foreign management
• Hallmarks of a global company - small head office, extensive outsourcing and insourcing, takes advantage of local laws (transaction costing across subsidiaries), international management
• Why go global - take advantage of overseas markets, decrease costs, increase efficiencies, increase customer base
• What is meant by the term 'born global' eg: Intrepid travel
• Of what benefit are aid agencies and multilateral development banks - can ride their knowledge and experience eg: AusAid provided scientific equipment but it had to be Australian.
• What are the CFBs - Chinese Family Businesses - 'bamboo network' - worldwide - apparently has an accumulated GDP that is greater than Australia.

The Global Manager

• Who is the global manager - Any manager (male or female ) who interface with people, goods and services across national boundaries.
• Such managers can be expatriates (not in your own country), host country nationals (hired locally), third country nationals (neither host, nor origin country) or in inpatriats (host country people in origin country) - this topic concentrates on the expatriate manager
• Also we could include expatriate technical specialists
• An argument exists that says that the truly global manager does not exist yet
• Why the dearth of female international managers? See Reading 6 in edition 5 of text)

Required competencies / attributes - highly unlikely any one manager has them all - all those required of managers in any context (process and people) plus:

• A global, or at least international mindset (not geocentric)
• Ability to apply global strategic skills locally (think global, act local) - adapt own strategic thinking to local context
• Able to manage cultural diversity and communicate cross culturally at all levels (MBI model)
• Skilled at adapting to new situations, acting independently within flexible networks
• Host country situational / context knowledge
• Leadership and vision (satisfying IGT needs - individual, group and task)
• Management of complexity, uncertain and ambiguity
• Human resource management
• Promotion of creativity, learning, innovation in an appropriate culture
• Making specialist staff "user driven" - being conscious of other people's needs
• Networking ability - inside and out of the organisation
• Proactive management skills plus ability to be also reactive when required (uncertainty lends itself to needing good reactive skills)
• Sound ethics - somewhat contextual, on the other hand, UN declarations
• Healthy and motivated - poor health and international assignments can be challenging!
• Trustworthy and reliable - do what you say you're going to do - develop over time
• Team orientated
• Leads by example but not patronising - I can do what you can do, and I won't ask you todo the impossible - can get away with it in some Asian countries but it won't be forgotten, or forgiven
• Exercise "tough empathy" - understand people's feelings / position but doesn't necessarily change own alignment

Selection, training and development

• Selection process should be systematic and include family with pre-appointment visit if possible - by systematic I mean - ask do we need this job, work out what we need for the job, what does it entail, develop job description and specification, then go through recruiting process
• Training and development (T&D) should be geared to the needs of the individual, the organisation and the job. Should be planned, progressive and continuous
• Method and timing depends on the nature of the international role
• The best training occurs on the job but requires care in implementation to be effective - hard at a distance! The best operator is not always the best instructor (but it's easy!)
• The cost of failure is much higher in the international arena! And failure is high! Often family reasons - trailing spouse and children

Expatriation and repatriation

• Are exercises in international human resources management which typically get short thrift in terms of thought, effort and resources
• Culture shock is a factor in both cases (going away and then coming home)
• Good selection and training is no substitute for continuing support by the organisation of both expatriates and repatriates
• Research suggests a high percentage of repatriates leave the company within 12 months

Another interpretation!
Bartlett and Ghoshal claim that the global manager is a... Network of specialists - business manager, country manager and functional manager - all on one!

Key issues / questions

• How can managers be helped to develop a global mindset whilst retaining local sensitivity -
• Some suggestion that concept should be think local, act global
• What are the best methods for selecting and training global / international managers
• Can managers be developed for international management roles prior to an assignment becoming available - strong Korean trend in sending developing managers on overseas assignments for a year so that they have cross cultural skills down the track
• What chances do small to medium sized enterprises have of preparing staff
• How do you asses performance in a global context
• Do international managers need to learn the host country language - the more you learn the more you can network and function socially
• How is corporate culture adapted to host country culture - we tend to try and export it, not necessarily well - national culture tends to win out over corporate
• What prevents many organisations from appointing women

Break!

Discussion of text reading: leadership, global mindset, etc,

Group exercise!

P153 Case Study from textbook - Nth American Foster tries to resolve supply problems with French joint venture, eventually escalates via email to his direct manager Charles, who in turns forwards his rather honest email to his manager LeBlanc, it eventually makes its way to the Arab/French joint venture VP Hassan who calls and shouts at him.

1. What were Foster's intentions in sending the email - record keeping, ass covering, resolving issue, escalating, to have a two-way conversation with his higher up
2. How did each recipient receive the emails - Charles seemed to have read it as an item to forward, LeBlanc responded to the technical content and the tone, Hassan received it as criticism.
3. What cultural assumptions underlie Foster's email and the call from Hassan - Foster probably assumed frank, private exchange, Hassan with his background probably was more sensitive to the criticism implied
4. How should Foster respond to Hassan - more personally than email, possibly physically to resolve relationship issues and supply issues
5. What are the messages for international managers in this case - email is forever, be sensitive to relationships.

Video!

AusTrade on overseas market selection: niche markets achievable, research and development very important. Femme Fatale video - product dev and launch, get product right, understand market, brand positioning, research, more research, packaging, Sadly introduced with "they're nice looking girls" which doesn't increase my respect levels.